Last week, our family enjoyed a vacation to Toronto. (See yesterday’s post for the first installment of our vacation adventures.)

We enjoyed seeing the sights, doing some classic “touristy” things, and soaking in the experience of being in a different country…somewhere new. But one of my favorite things we did was visit a local bookstore. It was located on the main street in Old Toronto, and since we are admittedly a family of book people, we couldn’t resist.

Yes, we know we can buy books at home, anytime we want. Amazon.com is always standing by, awaiting our orders, ready to ship any desired tomes directly to our front door.

But still…a bookstore. We had to at least check it out.

Nicholas Hoare Books was a charming place, narrow and cozy, with a neat little balcony area and a sizable kids’ section in the back. We spent a fair amount of time browsing books that morning. And as I’m sure you can guess, we couldn’t leave there without letting the kids pick out a book or two.

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C.(12) takes after his dad in some ways, such as the fact that they are both mildly obsessed with maps. Once C. saw the book Historical Atlas of Toronto, I don’t think he looked at anything else. It combines several of his favorite things: maps (of course), history, and a big city. Full of stories, maps, documents, and interesting facts, this book has already taught C. more about Toronto than any of us knew before. A good find and a suitable souvenir, I would say.

L.(5) had a harder time finding a book. He was instantly drawn to the newest Elephant & Piggie book, Should I Share My Ice Cream?, but he knew that book would be sitting on the shelves of our own Barnes & Noble, so he kept looking for something different. In the end, he picked a Dr. Seuss Dictionary (maps and dictionaries — our kids must take after their geeky parents), but I’m not going to tell you about that book.

The real find, as far as L. is concerned, is a little paperback that my husband, Chad, told me we “really should get.” It was a book I’d never seen before, but Chad had quickly read it while we were browsing and he knew that L. (and all of us, truth be told) would get a kick out of it.

Binky the Space Cat is a quirky book about Binky — a house cat devoted to protecting his humans — who has been given the opportunity to become an adventuring Space Cat. Along the way, he defends his home against bugs…er, alien invaders, builds a rocket ship, and prepares to leave the safety of his space station (aka, the house).

The author (Ashley Spires) clearly knows cats, and readers who know and/or love cats will appreciate Binky and all his feline idiosyncrasies.

Binky the Space Cat is a graphic novel loaded with cleverness and humor. I’m not exaggerating when I say that all four of us thoroughly enjoyed it. There were a couple little gags I could have done without (mostly because I have a 5-year-old who laughs a bit too hard when he reads the part about “aliens”/bugs who “eat poo”), but they were very minor and in my opinion, not enough to detract from the overall cuteness and enjoyability of Binky the Space Cat.

I was very glad to see on Amazon.com that there is a previous Binky book and one coming out in September. I wouldn’t be surprised if those books mysteriously find their way into our space station house at some point.

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Like most families, we enjoy picking up a souvenir or two while on vacation. But with our family, you can be sure that somehow, at least one book will find its way home with us at the end of a trip.

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I’m linking this post to 5 Minutes for Books’ monthly blog carnival, Kids’ Picks. Hop over there to see what books other kids have picked this month.